Training a Golden Retriever puppy

[luvavacation]

I recently had one of my Shepherds pass, and my other Shepherd was very depressed and lonely. An 11 week old female Golden Retriever/German Shepherd mix puppy entered our lives, and while they are great friends and she does learn so much from watching him, I am running into issues with training and focus.

The puppy is now 15 weeks. She is definitely leaning towards Golden in her behavior, and while smart as a whip and adorable beyond belief, her distraction level is very high.

I am training her to understand both verbal commands and hand motions. This is how I trained my Shepherds, but I am not having the success with this puppy that I had with my Shepherds. I think this old dog needs to learn some new tricks in training!

We will be working on her commands, and then a butterfly will go by, and she will run off to the butterfly. Or a leaf will blow across the grass, and she follows the leaf. In the meantime, my Shepherd is going through all the commands on his own, focused completely on my face and my hands.

When she is focused, she follows instruction very well, but it is a constant struggle to keep her focused.

She is very food motivated, but even food will not draw her away from a butterfly or the neighbor dogs at the fence.

Any advice on Golden Retriever puppy training? We will be starting puppy classes in 3 weeks, but until then, I am hoping to learn how to adapt to the Golden way of learning and would love to get her to focus on ME, not the butterflies!

 

[CarolAnn856]

Sounds like a typical toddler to me, lol. I don't have any advice, but the image of a GR puppy chasing after a butterfly is adorable. (To me, who doesn't have to train her!) Good luck!

 

[Hrhpd]

I recently had one of my Shepherds pass, and my other Shepherd was very depressed and lonely. An 11 week old female Golden Retriever/German Shepherd mix puppy entered our lives, and while they are great friends and she does learn so much from watching him, I am running into issues with training and focus.

The puppy is now 15 weeks. She is definitely leaning towards Golden in her behavior, and while smart as a whip and adorable beyond belief, her distraction level is very high.

I am training her to understand both verbal commands and hand motions. This is how I trained my Shepherds, but I am not having the success with this puppy that I had with my Shepherds. I think this old dog needs to learn some new tricks in training!

We will be working on her commands, and then a butterfly will go by, and she will run off to the butterfly. Or a leaf will blow across the grass, and she follows the leaf. In the meantime, my Shepherd is going through all the commands on his own, focused completely on my face and my hands.

When she is focused, she follows instruction very well, but it is a constant struggle to keep her focused.

She is very food motivated, but even food will not draw her away from a butterfly or the neighbor dogs at the fence.

Any advice on Golden Retriever puppy training? We will be starting puppy classes in 3 weeks, but until then, I am hoping to learn how to adapt to the Golden way of learning and would love to get her to focus on ME, not the butterflies!

She's just a baby at 15 weeks. We, as well as most of our colleagues, don't even let our puppies go until 12 weeks. The only training tool you need is exactly what you are doing now, patience and repetition. Just keep at it, redirecting her when necessary. As she gets older, she will focus more and more. And if she is following her Golden side, she is a retriever, so chasing things is in her nature. A shepherd is a herding dog, so it is in its nature to focus on what he is herding.

If there is any suggestion beyond just patience and repetition, it would be this...The biggest lesson I learned from our obedience trainer is to NEVER issue a command unless you know you can enforce it. Once a puppy ignores it, the word you used is no longer good. For instance, if you said "come" and the puppy did not come the first time and you had to say it again, you would need to find another word like "here" from that point on because the puppy just learned she doesn't have to come the first time with the command "come." Our trainer recommended sending puppies out to piddle with a 30 ft leash on them. You grab the end of the leash before you issue the command to "come" so that you can enforce it by bringing her in after the first time you told her come.

So, if your dog is chasing butterflies or running to the fence, you will need to have a leash on her so that you can enforce the command you are giving her. Be patient and wait until she follows your directions. You should have her on a leash watching you and just wait until she complies. Try not to issue the command again. She heard you the first time. You may need to help her, like a gentle tug down on the collar to encourage a down. Use a word consistently and never let them ignore that word even once. Make sure you always have a way to enforce the command. Our puppies always have a 1 ft leash on them (always under supervision) so that we can reach out and grab the leash to enforce anything we are telling them.

 

[luvavacation]

Good advice, Hrhpd! I will try the leash method.

With my previous dogs, I just always started training bit by bit from the moment they came home, one command at a time, and training was always first before play (with lots and lots play because puppies are fun!). With this little girl, she just wants to play and I think I need to switch up the routine but I am not sure if that will have her thinking that she gets to decide when things happen. The leash may just be what I need to do to focus her on work, not play. Again, thank you!

CarolAnn856, her floppy ears as she runs after butterflies (and then grabs a flower head from the garden without missing a beat ) is enough to melt anyone's heart! She is just the cutest little thing!

 

[LSUmiss]

Sounds like a typical toddler to me, lol. I don't have any advice, but the image of a GR puppy chasing after a butterfly is adorable. (To me, who doesn't have to train her!) Good luck!

That’s what I was going to say. My golden puppy is now 1 yr old. He had basic training to be a polite dog, but, for me, part of the fun of having a puppy were moments like that. But, I find goldens respond to praise perhaps more than any other reward b/c they’re such social dogs.

 

[Tink9721]

We have a 6 month old Golden, and he definitely has that Golden personality He started puppy classes around 18 weeks, and he has his last class on Tuesday. He’s actually doing much better than I thought he would, but he definitely gets distracted by the other puppies sometimes. Ours is very food motivated too. Have you tried using different kinds of treats? Ours was getting bored when we used the same treats over and over during class, so we started bringing a couple different kinds.

Also, we have trouble getting him to do some of his commands outside because there’s just too much going on out there for an easily distracted puppy. He does pretty well inside where the only potential distraction is a cat

Good luck! This is my second Golden and he’s doing much better than the first, but it’s definitely hard. Goldens are the best though Enjoy your puppy!

 

[Tink9721]

That’s what I was going to say. My golden puppy is now 1 yr old. He had basic training to be a polite dog, but, for me, part of the fun of having a puppy were moments like that. But, I find goldens respond to praise perhaps more than any other reward b/c they’re such social dogs.

I agree. Our 6 month old Golden is doing puppy classes because we want him to be polite, not because we want a perfectly trained dog. As long as he doesn’t jump on people or anything like that, we’re good. The jumping was cute when we brought him home at 12 pounds, not so much now at 57 pounds He already knows to sit for treats and attention, at least from “new” people, so that’s good. He’s mostly just crazy with his favorite people

 

[monsterkitty]

See that cute little puppy in my avatar? He's now 7 but was very easy to train because he is such a people pleaser. He is actually now a therapy dog at the hospital and at our airport. He does have his moments if there's a tennis ball around, though.

Now his 12-year-old brother, on the other hand, still acts like your 11-week-old puppy. He still steals socks in the morning and does everything else a great Golden is supposed to do - when they're puppies.

Goldens are the best! Good luck!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

This thread is no good without pictures!

Agree with Hrhpd. Have a lead on and don't give commands you can't enforce.

You should've seen me with a Cairn Terrier puppy after having GSDs! They are stubborn little buggers, he still won't even give me his paw at age 4, but fortunately with time and consistency he is pretty good at amost everything else. (Forget Recall, though, they take off, then you have to play Catch the Cairn!) I remember it being pretty rough at the beginning, though, too.

If you don't already have a copy of this, get one. If you have it, break it out and re-read it. (You can find it in many Used book stores and Savers.)

https://www.amazon.com/Owners-Great-Brian-Kilcommons-Wilson/dp/B004J27WNS

Brian and Sarah also have a book which comes with a DVD for puppy training which is very good. I used it with my little guy, too.

https://www.amazon.com/My-Smart-Pup...eST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

Good luck, hang in there!